By Ikenna Asomba

If the recent enforcement strategy put in place by the Lagos State Government, to proffer solution to the unending traffic gridlock on major roads in the Apapa area of the state, is anything to go by, Lagosians may now heave a sigh of relief.

Last Thursday, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode paid an unscheduled visit to major traffic points in the Apapa area of the state, to get a first-hand experience of the gridlock, which has defied solutions in recent times.

Accompanied on the visit by top officials of the state government and security agencies, Ambode said he was particularly perturbed by the nightmares commuters and motorists were condemned to on a daily basis, noting that the traffic problem on the roads in Apapa was largely due to the indiscriminate parking of articulated vehicles attempting to access the port and tank farms located in the areas.

As a palliative measure towards ensuring a free flow of traffic, the governor said a task force, comprising most of the security agencies, including the police would be immediately set up to ensure 24 hours surveillance of traffic flow, stressing, however, that the Lagos Road Traffic Law would be enforced to the letter.

In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Habib Aruna, Ambode said: “We would pay more attention to enforcement. From this evening (Thursday), you will see that there would be more attention on enforcement and we will also fund that enforcement. We are going to give incentives to our law enforcement officers to ensure that the Lagos Traffic Law is obeyed.”

Operation steer-clear Lagos roads

True to his words, Vanguard gathered on Sunday, that the task-force set-up by Governor Ambode moved in, forcing the recalcitrant articulated vehicles drivers who had in the last few weeks indiscriminately parked along the Berger Yard-Sanya Bus-Stop of the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, to steer clear the ever-busy highway.

Vanguard learnt that following the impounding of some of the articulated vehicles by the task-force team which stormed the axis on Saturday and Sunday, the drivers were said to have scampered for safety.

Eyewitness account said beginning from Saturday afternoon, the recalcitrant trucks and tanker drivers had started exiting the ever-busy highways for fear of having their vehicles impounded.

How Lagos lawmaker intervened

Gbenga Bareehu Ashafa

Meanwhile, during a recent plenary session, lawmaker representing the Lagos-East in the Senate, Senator Gbenga Ashafa, had affirmed that only legislative action can bring to an end the endless traffic gridlock in Lagos, as well as fuel tanker tragedies on the nation’s highways.

Recall that within a short space of one month, about six fuel tanker spills and explosions occurred in four major Nigerian cities with attendant catastrophic results in the destruction of lives and properties. Statistics on the incidents in Lagos and Onitsha alone, show that a total of 114 shops, 34 buildings, 21 vehicles, tricycles and trucks were affected, not excluding loss and injury to human lives.

Worried by this avoidable incidents, Ashafa in a motion expressed serious concerns over the frequency and negative economic impact of fuel-laden tankers explosions, even as he raised serious posers why the rail-line projects as an alternative route to the carriage of such dangerous cargo has not been effectively put in place by successive administrations.

The lawmaker also placed the nation’s ailing refineries under the radar, arguing that if the four refineries were functional, tankers in the country would have no business coming to Lagos to lift fuel.

“The refineries in Port-Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna would have taken care of that, because it has become apparent that the current road network in Nigeria is seemingly inadequate for the operations of trucks and tankers,” he said.

Meanwhile, against these backdrop, the Senate resolved to call on the Federal Government to continue the process of revamping the rail system to ease the pressure on Nigerian roads, to revamp existing refineries and create room for the establishment of private refineries. It was also resolved that the matter would be referred to the relevant senate standing committees when established.

Residents react

However, reacting to the new development on the Oshodi-Apapa expressway on Sunday, an Okada rider, Thompson Eke told Vanguard that the task-force also moved against drivers of the articulated vehicles who parked indiscriminately on the bridges along the Ijora-Marine Beach-Apapa highway.

Eke, who expressed optimism that the days of impunity by the tanker drivers who flood the axis to load petroleum products from the 57 tank farms in the Apapa area was over said: “I feel so happy today (Sunday), seen the task-force team set-up by the Lagos State Government, storming the Oshodi-Apapa expressway and the Ijora-Marine Beach bridge linking Apapa to chase these tanker drivers away. Over the last few years, they have formed the habit of parking indiscriminately on these highways, believing they are untouchable. But with this recent move, I hope an end has come to their impunity.”

A commercial bus driver, who plies the Mile 2-Kirikiri axis, Christopher Michael, was full of thanks to the Lagos State government, pointing that the move to get the truck and tanker drivers off the way was long over-due.

Michael said: “As a driver who plies the Mile2-Kirikiri axis of this road, the hardship these trucks and tankers cause us and our passengers is unquantifiable. We have just been struggling in our business with little or no profit, because passengers don’t patronise us again. They rather chose to patronise the Okada riders to take them to Kirikiri.

Even when we manage to ply this route, we drive against the traffic (one-way), which is very dangerous. Our colleagues who have been involved in auto-crashes over these years owing to this unfortunate situation are countless. We can do nothing but to pray that this directive by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, will put an end to our years of sufferings.”

Similarly, Adeleke Akanni, a bus driver who plies the Mile 2-Apapa Wharf, expressed optimism that the days of hardship over the perennial traffic log-jam on the Oshodi-Apapa highway are over. “We witnessed today (Sunday) that the state governor lived to his promise, that’s why the tankers and trucks are no longer parking indiscriminately on this road. However, this recent development, for me, can only last if the promise by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, that the nation’s refineries will be functional as from this month comes to pass,” said Akanni.